Last week, on December 2nd, Aragon Research hosted its 11th annual Transform event – and it was quite a success! 2021 was the second year that Transform consisted of virtual sessions. However, this year we were able to pull off a hybrid format, ending the event with a small in-person gathering in the Bay Area.
This blog will discuss everything you need to know about Aragon Transform 2021 – whether you are here to reminisce as one of our event attendees, or you’re here because you want to read up on what you missed.
Pre-Event Briefing: 2 Insightful Presentations
Our December 2nd event began with two insightful virtual sessions – one from our very own Aragon Research analysts, and one from a special guest panel consisting of executives from Nintex, Fuze, and D2L.
[Session 1] New Reality for 2022: The Enterprise Becomes Intelligent
To kick off Transform 2021, our first session was held by Betsy Burton, Aragon VP of Research, and Craig Kennedy, Aragon Sr. Director of Research.
Key takeaways:
- TRENDS: Technology-enabled businesses will continue to be impacted (opportunity and threats) by AI/intelligence as well as current work, business, and operation trends.
- TECHNOLOGIES: Emerging technologies are inextricably linked to emerging business trends.
- PLAYBOOK: Technology can help solve many of the issues we face, if we have the will, focus, and knowledge to use it effectively.
To learn about the specific technologies, trends, and advice discussed in this presentation, view the full session on-demand here!
[Session 2] Think Differently: Winning Playbooks for 2022
After our analysts wrapped up their presentation, it was time to introduce our guest panelists to discuss winning playbooks for 2022. We were honored to be joined by these panelists, who offered valuable advice about preparing for 2022 to our audience:
- Eric Johnson, CEO, Nintex
- Aly Scott, CMO, D2L
- Eric Hanson, CMO, Fuze
Key takeaways:
- To collaborate successfully in 2022, enterprises need to optimize their digital experiences.
- Personalization is key for people-centric collaboration. Optimize your technology to enable your employees. Also personalize your buyers’ journey.
- Go all in on this digitized way of working.
- Achieving seamlessness should be a major goal for your collaboration strategy.
- For 2022 and beyond, smaller in-person events are what people want – the big events may be a thing of the past. Offering virtual event sessions, even if there is an in-person portion, is also key.
To hear the full context of these key takeaways, view the full session on-demand here!
Awards Ceremonies
Once our two presentations were complete, it was time for our highly anticipated awards ceremonies for our 2021 Hot Vendors, Innovation, and Women In Technology winners!
Our awards ceremonies were held virtually, but we didn’t want to let that stop us from inviting our award winners to publicly accept their award and have the chance to speak in front of our Transform audience. So, there were many special guest appearances during our event!
I’ll provide a brief recap of our awards ceremonies below, but if you’d like to view the full sessions on demand, click here.
P.S.–our 2022 award nominations are OPEN! Learn more here.
Hot Vendors:
Our Hot Vendor ceremony came first, and featured Hot Vendors across 7 different categories.
We announced each category and winner, and allowed a representative from each winning company to address the audience via video if they chose to do so. On top of celebrating the achievements of our Hot Vendors, this awards ceremony also proved to be very helpful to our audience, who were introduced to many innovative and leading vendors in many different categories that are worth evaluating as we enter 2022.
You can read more about our Hot Vendor categories and winners here.
Women In Technology & Innovation:
Our next awards ceremony announced our 2021 Women In Technology and Innovation winners. We heard from both current and past winners during this ceremony, from a wide variety of companies and industries.
This year, we awarded 10 WIT in 10 different categories, and 14 Innovation winners in 14 different categories.
To see who won our WIT & Innovation awards, check out our press release.
In-Person Dinner & WIT Panel
Unlike last year, for 2021, we were able to host an in-person portion of Transform. This was a small and safe gathering where about 50 professionals came together in San Francisco to enjoy dinner and drinks and watch our live Women In Technology panel!
Our WIT panel consisted of four women in technology from Avaya, Contentsquare, RingCentral, and Five9! These women discussed their personal experiences as a woman in the technology industry, including how they got where they are today and overcoming challenges, as well as advice for younger generations.
Our 2021 WIT panelists:
- Kira Makagon, Chief Innovation Officer, Ringcentral
- Genefa Murphy, Chief Marketing Officer, Five9
- Karen Hardy, VP Global Partnership, Avaya
- Danielle Levitas, VP Marketing, Contentsquare
Bottom Line
We are so happy to have been able to put on a powerful event full of key takeaways for our audience. We are already looking forward to planning our 2022 Transform Tour. Keep an eye out for more information on our website in the coming months!
Before wrapping up this blog, we wanted to give a special shoutout to our Transform 2021 sponsors. Without their support, our event would not have been such a success! Thank you Avaya, our Global Diamond Sponsor, Contentsquare, our Global Sapphire Sponsor, and RingCentral and Fuze, our Gold Sponsors.
To watch any of our virtual Transform 2021 sessions on-demand, click here.